KINGSTON — Republican Assemblyman George Amedore maintained a roughly 111-vote lead* in an electoral contest that will determine control of the state Senate as elections officials finished examining over 4,100 absentee and affidavit ballots in Ulster County.

But the race is far from over: There are still roughly 875 ballots that were legally challenged by the campaigns which will be considered in court starting Thursday, and Democratic candidate Cecilia Tkaczyk’s spokesman remained confident she would be declared the winner as they are open. Most of those ballots, 525, were the result of objections in Ulster County and the vast majority of the complaints — 462, a Democrat watching the recount said — were initiated by Republicans. Republicans also objected to over 120 of the 215 ballots laid aside in Greene County.

Both campaigns remained confident heading into a court hearing Thursday afternoon when Acting Montgomery County Supreme Court Justice Guy Tomlinson will turn his attention to the remaining ballots. If the objections are deemed to be valid, they’ll be thrown out. Democrats accused Republicans of “frivolous” objections to boost their candidate’s chances in the public eye.

“It gives them the opportunity to talk about how they’re leading as the votes are drying up,” said Democratic Senate Campaign Chairman Mike Gianaris. “We believe the purpose is to keep Democratic winners of those elections from being seated.”

“It is increasingly clear that Cecilia Tkaczyk will be the next State Senator for the 46th Senate District. Despite more than 660 mostly frivolous ballot objections by Senate Republicans – over 450 more than Democratic objections – the margin currently stands at 110 votes. When those hundreds of legitimate votes are counted, the will of the voters to elect Cecilia will be evident.”

* Democrats say the margin is 110 votes, Republican counters say Amedore is up by 111.

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